Theatre previews used to mean cheap seats and a chance for directors to make last minute changes. Today, they are an excuse to charge the full rate before the critics' verdict. Has the practice outlived its use, wonders Marcus Pollett

When is a preview not a preview? Answer: when it is a show that is ready for the public but waiting for the critics. By any reasonable measure, a preview ought to be a show that isn't quite ready and a preview audience one that pays less than the full ticket price, knowing that is the case. But saying, in a bit of an affected way, that a show is 'in preview', increasingly sounds hollow when all that means is that the press hasn't seen it - even more so if tickets are no cheaper.

by Michael Billington, Guardian theatre critic Why not abolish previews altogether? Let the big musicals iron out their problems out of town, as is happening with Mary Poppins at Bristol Hippodrome. Let subsidised plays have a dry run in front of the theatre's Friends, as happens with opera and ballet at Covent Garden. What we have now is the worst of all worlds...

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